Culture

Sacred Journeys

Join best-selling author/adventurer Bruce Feiler on an epic journey as he travels with contemporary pilgrims on six historic pilgrimages around the world and explores how these sacred landscapes and revitalized routes are reshaping faith.

Osun-Osogbo

54m 21s

The festival of Osun-Osgobo, which takes place every year in Osogbo, Nigeria, celebrates the Yoruba goddess of fertility, Osun. The festival renews the contract between humans and the divine: Osun offers grace to the community; in return, it vows to honor her Sacred Grove.

Episodes

  • Osun-Osogbo: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Osun-Osogbo

    S1 E6 - 54m 21s

    The festival of Osun-Osgobo, which takes place every year in Osogbo, Nigeria, celebrates the Yoruba goddess of fertility, Osun. The festival renews the contract between humans and the divine: Osun offers grace to the community; in return, it vows to honor her Sacred Grove.

  • Kumbh Mela: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Kumbh Mela

    S1 E5 - 54m 51s

    Every twelve years, tens of millions of men, women and children gather on the flood plain of the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers in Allahabad, India, for the Kumbh Mela, the largest gathering of humanity for religious purposes on the planet. Pilgrims come from across India and around the world to bathe in the water where the two sacred rivers meet.

  • The Hajj: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Hajj

    S1 E4 - 54m 51s

    One of the five pillars of Islam is that each believer is called, at least once in their lives, to make the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage that starts and ends in the holy city of Mecca located in today's Saudi Arabia. The journey recreates Muhammad's own path as the native son returned to his tribal home as the leader of a vibrant new religion.

  • Jerusalem: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Jerusalem

    S1 E3 - 54m 51s

    The Hebrew Bible instructs all Jews to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem three times a year. But the city is holy to more than just Jews: Christian pilgrims began coming to Jerusalem and the Holy Land within centuries of Jesus' death, and the Al Aksa Mosque, located inside the walls of the Old City, is considered the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina.

  • Shikoku: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Shikoku

    S1 E2 - 54m 51s

    The Japanese island of Shikoku is the birthplace of the most revered figure in Japanese Buddhism, the monk and teacher Kobo-Daishi. For hundreds of years, a 750-mile pilgrimage route has circled this mountainous island, connecting 88 separate temples and shrines that claim connection to Daishi, also known as the Great Master.

  • Lourdes: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Lourdes

    S1 E1 - 54m 50s

    Lourdes has become one of the holiest Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world, visited annually by more than five million people who come in search of healing from its sacred waters. Since the end of World War II, soldiers from around the world have journeyed to Lourdes seeking healing and unity with one another at a week-long gathering known as the International Military Pilgrimage.

Extras + Features

  • Notes from the Field: Steve's Story (Shikoku): asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Notes from the Field: Steve's Story (Shikoku)

    S1 E2 - 2m 39s

    Walk around the island of Shikoku with Steve Williams, a retired Marine who returned to the island for a second attempt at completing the 700 mile spiritual trail.

  • Lourdes (Preview): asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Lourdes (Preview)

    S1 E1 - 1m 35s

    Journey to the Catholic shrine of Lourdes with active duty and retired US veterans in search of healing. This episode of Sacred Journeys with Bruce Feiler premieres December 16 at 8/7C on PBS (check local listings). See more from Lourdes at http://pbs.org/sacredjourneys

  • Visions of the Virgin Mary (Lourdes): asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Visions of the Virgin Mary (Lourdes)

    S1 E1 - 4m 21s

    Learn about Bernadette Soubirous, a young peasant who proclaimed in 1858 that she had had numerous encounters with the Virgin Mary in the small French village of Lourdes, in this video resource from PBS LearningMedia.

  • Notes from the Field: Zach's Story (Lourdes): asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Notes from the Field: Zach's Story (Lourdes)

    S1 E1 - 2m 22s

    Meet Cpl. Zach Herrick, a retired U.S. Army rifleman who was injured three months into his deployment to Afghanistan. Zach journeyed to Lourdes in search of healing.

  • Notes from the Field: Office of Medical Observ. (Lourdes): asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Notes from the Field: Office of Medical Observ. (Lourdes)

    S1 E1 - 2m 44s

    Many may find spiritual healing in the rites and rituals of the pilgrimage to Lourdes, while others believe they find physical healing. Whenever someone claims they are physically cured by the waters of Lourdes, the case is evaluated by an international committee of medical professionals. Get an exclusive look at the records of the Office of Medical Observations.

  • Notes from the Field: The Underground Basilica (Lourdes): asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Notes from the Field: The Underground Basilica (Lourdes)

    S1 E1 - 2m 15s

    Take a look inside one of the world’s largest underground basilicas—big enough to hold 25,000 people—where active and retired servicemen and women assemble yearly as part of the military pilgrimage to Lourdes.

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